Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Weekend Wonderings: Condensation in bottles, and filling them!

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a lovely Sunday. Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but I've finally had a chance to sit down and read the comments. I've really enjoyed reading your questions and suggsestions, and I'm getting through them one by one. I continue to ask your patience as I'm still in October, but I'll be current soon enough. Again, I thank you all for your kindness and support during this horrible time in our lives.

In this post, Bunni asks a question and makes a great suggestion! I have a question and a suggestion, for whenever you get around to them. First regarding condensation. If the bottle had condensation and you gave it a good shake, wouldn't the condensation liquid become part of the preserved lotion or is that not enough mixing for it to work?

One of the reasons we don't bottle our products when they're warm is to avoid condensation in the bottle because that evaporated water isn't preserved and can collect in the lid of the bottle leading to serious grossness and contamination. To answer your question - I think it depends on the bottle. If you have a screw on or disc cap, it'll could be okay as it doesn't have a ton of parts in which the water could hide. For a mister, pump, or foamer bottle top that's another story, as the water could get into the mechanisms and stay there.

If I had to give a short, one sentence answer to this I'd say that I wouldn't take the chance on using a bottle cap in which I'd found condensation. Better to use a different cap and be safe.

Bunni makes a great suggestion about filling our bottles!The suggestion, unless you've found a better way by now, is in regard to filling bottles. I bought a six pack of 32 ounce (1 litre), wide-mouth, squeeze bottles with yorker caps. When my lotion is cooled I put it in those and store them upside down (on a wire rack). They make it very easy to fill bottles because they are so squeezable. The lotion shoots to the bottom of the bottle being filled, even if it is pretty thick. There is a bit of waste and it does slow me down right at the end - getting the last bits out - but it is a great improvement over anything else I have tried. I hope that is helpful.

That is very helpful! Thanks, Bunni! I tend to make smaller batches, and I find using piping bags work great for me, but I'm going to get some of these bottles use them for storing extra lotion for filling later.

3 comments:

I find my lotions turn out waaay better looking when I put them in their container after they cooled off than when I pour them in while still liquidy enough to pour. Maybe it's just me but everytime I pour it warm my lotion looks almost curded or full of air pockets or something. When i let it cool completely in my pyrex before putting in containers it looks more like a lotion consistency. I know it is so much easier to pour it warm and leave lids off but for me it never works and I always wonder about the unreserved condensation that seems to get trapped under the curve of the bottles. So I cool it then put in a zip lock baggie and slowly pull the corner so it stretches into some kind of funnel looking end then snip the very end of that. It works to shoot the product all to the bottom of your container. And to get every last drop from the baggie I use a ruler and push all the lotion to the corner. I've gotten good at it so you can't even tell I've used the baggie it leave nothing behind using the ruler

They are pretty easy to clean due to the wide mouth and you can also get a skinny spatula into them to scrape more than I thought was possible. I fill them with soapy water, shake a bunch, use a bottle brush and then run them through the dishwasher. They have survived quite a few dishwashings with no signs of melt or wear.

I was so glad to have an idea you could use. I have gotten so much from you! Thank you!

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To raise money for our youth groups, I've put together these e-books! If you want to learn more about the books or donate, click on the bolded links!Or click here for a short description of all the e-books!The new e-book is here! Formulating Facial Products! This 399 page e-book is filled with recipes for facial products, including moisturizers, sera, cleansers (oil and surfactant based), scrubs, gels, and more, as well as entries for ingredients like botanical extracts, cosmeceuticals, emulsifiers, thickeners, essential oil, and more, as well as a large appendix about our oils.

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Formulating & Creating Lotions! This 224 page e-book is perfect for those of you familiar with lotion making and ready to start creating your own recipes! I've included all the information I know about the HLB system, as well as my base recipes for lotions, creams, body butters, and moisturizers!

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Lotion Making 101. This 305 page book includes everything you wanted to know about the basics of making lotions, including the chemistry of our lotions, ingredients we use, keeping your lotions safe, equipment you might need, and more recipes than I could count! For those of you who don't have the Back to Basics book, I've included all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles.

Click here to see the table of contents. If you make a $29 donation to my youth groups, I'll send you along a copy of this e-book as a thank you. I'll also send you a copy of the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts!

Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products. This 122 page e-book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath melts, bath oils, oil based sprays, solid scrubs, and facial sera, as well as all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles and everything I've gathered about the chemistry of our oils including fatty acids, mechanisms of rancidity, phytosterols, and polyphenols.

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Who the heck is Swift?

I'm an aspiring cosmetic scientician and DIY girl interested in pretty much any craft you can name - bookbinding, jewellery making, sewing, paper crafts, polymer clay - but my main passion is bath & body product making.
I am currently obsessed with Rock Band (bass and singing) and science books. Did you know my favourite word is "toaster" and my favourite adjective is "hirsute"?